JO HAYWOOD talks to a York University professor who appreciates the power of flowers.

Learn about wild flowers and save the world! It's a nice idea, isn't it? But is it a philosophy to live by or a whimsical notion with about as much weight as rose petals in a stiff breeze?

Alastair Fitter, Professor of Biology at York University and joint author of a new comprehensive guide to Britain's flora, believes a little knowledge about nature really can go a long way to changing the world we live in.

"The ecological problems we face are very serious. Some are potentially catastrophic," he said. "But people don't seem interested in climate change and pollution anymore.

"The attitude seems to be that a lot of fuss was made in the Nineties and we are not dead yet, so everything must be all right. That couldn't be further from the truth.

"I could simply tell people we are doomed and have a brief impact, but I think publishing this book could have longer term implications. Hopefully it will get people interested in the natural world; interested enough to want to do something about it."

The book in question, Wild Flowers of Britain & Ireland (A & C Black, £16.99), is the culmination of three lifetimes of study and includes more than 5,000 colour illustrations and 1,600 maps.

Prof Fitter, 55, of Huntington, painstakingly mapped the plants, his 90-year-old father, Richard, wrote the text, and Marjorie Blamey, an 86-year-old Cornish artist, painted the entire gamut of British and Irish flora.

The trio first collaborated in 1974 when they produced the Collins Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers. Shorter, smaller and unmapped, it was nevertheless a best-seller, successfully translated into many languages.

"Our first book covered a massive area from the Russian frontier to the west of Ireland," said Prof Fitter. "It was very useful if you were travelling in Europe, but when you are at home in Yorkshire you don't really want a book that has page after page of flowers only found in Germany."

The new book is the first in a series, each dealing with a particular area of Europe. It is a more substantial tome than its predecessor, but it is still small enough to fit easily into a rucksack.

"The last thing I want is for people to take plants home to identify them," said Prof Fitter. "Leave the flowers where they are and take the book to them."

He inherited his love of nature from his father, an economist who gave up his "proper job" in the 1950s when his pioneering pocket guides on birds and flowers first took off.

"They were the first books not specifically aimed at botanists," Prof Fitter explained. "They were for ordinary people who wanted to know more about the world around them.

"My father has a real skill for telling people what they need to know and cutting out everything they don't. This means our new book is about as far from a dry textbook as you can get; it's clear, concise and interesting."

Running a university department, mapping the entire flora of the British Isles and acting as president of the Ecological Society - a group of 4,500 scientists trying to push ecology on to the national agenda - does not leave much time for nature rambles, so Prof Fitter tries to make the most of what is available on his doorstep. An idea he would encourage others to consider.

"Parents need to make sure their children are interested in nature," he said. "Changes to the curriculum have made it difficult for schools, so parents have to do their bit.

"You don't have to go far; Askham bog has more plant and insect species than anywhere else in Yorkshire."

Finally, an obvious question but one which had to be asked: what is Prof Fitter's favourite British wild flower?

"It has to be the bluebell," he said. "Nowhere else in the world can you see anything like a bluebell wood.

"Go up to the Howardians in May and it's a carpet of blue. How much longer that will be the case, I don't know. Bluebells have thrived in the past because of our climate. As our climate changes, it could prove disastrous for them."

And we are neatly back to where we started. Save the bluebells and you just might save the world.

Updated: 08:37 Saturday, October 25, 2003